Boris Charmatz

enfant

Boris Charmatz, a star of contemporary avantgarde dance, challenges the notion of multiplicity by raising a relatively simple question: is it possible to have physical movement without the use of muscles? Building on his previous research on machines, this new instalment in Chatmatz’s body of work is a choreography of surrendered bodies, employing a controversial material: children; a fragile, malleable yet also uncontrollable material. Adult dancers, to the sounds of a bagpipe musician, carry the children around and place them on the ground, in the process generating a landscape of metamorphosis. Movement is prominent throughout the piece, both in its human and its mechanical form. A huge crane moves the adult dancers around; in turn, they move the children.